1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to ceiling fans, and in particular to support brackets for mounting fan blades to ceiling fans.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior art ceiling fans have fan blades which are mounted to motors for ceiling fans in a cantilevered type of arrangement. The blades for typical ceiling fans have inward ends which are secured to mounting brackets, and outward ends which extend radially outward from a central axis of rotation for the ceiling fan. The fan blades are configured for rotating around the central axis and moving air in response to powering the motor for the ceiling fan.
Fan blade mounting brackets for prior art ceiling fans typically include support arms which extend between the motor and the radially inward portions for the fan blades. The support arms are usually bolted to the motor. Some prior art support arms extend to the top side of the inward portions for ceiling fan blades. Decorative medallions may be placed for extending along the bottom, or lower flat sides, of the fan blades. Some decorative medallions are secured to the support arms with screws or bolts which extend through the fan blades. In this type of arrangement, the decorative medallions are typically metal plates which are clamped to the upper support members with the ceiling fan blades sandwiched therebetween to secure the ceiling fan blade to the mounting bracket. Only one continuous support point, or contact region, is provided for each of the fan blades by such a mounting arrangement. The singular support points are defined by the surface area of the contact region between the decorative medallions and the bottom of the fan blades.
These single support points, or regions, are typically flat, or planar surfaces. When a fan blade in this type of prior art, cantilevered mounting arrangement initially begins to wobble in response to an imbalance in the fan blades, portions of the singular planar surface of the fan blade may separate from the singular planar surface of the medallion. There is usually some play between the planar surfaces that will allow fan blades to wobble, even if extended planar contact surfaces are provided between the mounting brackets and the fan blades. The contact surfaces, even those extending over larger regions, will not be perfectly parallel. Even those mated contact surfaces which are close to parallel may wear and move away from parallel alignment. This will allow the fan blades to wobble some, since the mating flat planar contact surfaces will contact along either a line of contact or a point contact as the fan blades are canted.
Arms and other protrusions may also be provided to extend from the medallions for decorative purposes. Some of these decorative arms and other protrusions extend between the medallion and the support arms, inward of the medallion in relation to the central axis of rotation for the ceiling fan. These decorative arms and protrusions do not provide second support regions which extend outward beyond the support regions provided by the medallions for prior art mounting brackets. Rather, these decorative arms and protrusions of mounting brackets for prior art ceiling fans merely extend between different portions of the mounting bracket having only a single planar contact surface.